This article presents a literature review of the works of Otto Kernberg on the psychotherapeutic approach of patients with a borderline personality disorder. This approach was used in a course of psychotherapy offered to students of the Institute of Psychiatry from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. The study was undertaken to meet a demand related to difficulties of the students with the management of transference phenomena in patients with a borderline personality disorder. A theoretical approach was used in the study that privileged the understanding of the technique denominated Expressive Psychotherapy. Knowledge about the use of interpretation in the here and now of the therapeutic relationship revealed to be the main intervention in relation to transference phenomena characteristic of psychotherapeutic treatment of such patients.
psychotherapy; borderline personality disorder; internship and residency; teaching